'Fraudulent':  DOJ asked to investigate Wisconsin GOP over Souls to the Polls texts

A progressive law firm has requested the U.S. Attorney’s office to investigate two Republican Party staff members over texts they sent prior to the 2020 presidential election.

In a letter sent Wednesday to U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Wisconsin Gregory Haanstad, Law Forward attorney Chris Donahoe alleged that two people who worked for former President Donald Trump’s campaign targeted a Milwaukee voting rights group during the campaign.

Last month, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported that Andrew Iverson, the new executive director of the Wisconsin Republican Party, and Carlton Huffman, the former head of Trump Victory, texted about plans to “wreak havoc” with Souls to the Polls, an organization that drives voters to polling places on Election Day.

The texts between Iverson and Huffman show them discussing plans to flood the organization with requests for rides from Trump voters who may not even be planning to vote. Souls to the Polls does not ask people who they plan to vote for, though it operates in the Democratic stronghold of Milwaukee.

Iverson has said the texts were jokes, but in the letter, Donahoe argues they may have violated federal civil rights laws. Donahoe writes that the texts may have violated the Ku Klux Klan Act, which bans conspiracies to interfere with federal elections, the Voting Rights Act and the Civil Rights Act.

“As the Ku Klux Klan Act, Voting Rights Act, and Civil Rights Act illustrate, Black voters had to fight for their constitutional right to vote and sufficient protection to safely exercise that right,” the letter states. “Voters that Souls to the Polls serves, namely voters from marginalized communities and especially Black voters, still face disproportionate threats of disenfranchisement and greater obstacles to voting than other citizens. Iverson and Huffman’s plans to interfere with their right to vote, by flooding Souls to the Polls with fraudulent requests for rides, must be taken seriously and investigated thoroughly.”

In a statement, Wisconsin GOP spokesperson Matt Fisher reiterated that the text from Iverson telling Huffman to “wreak havoc” was a joke.

“From the beginning, Andrew Iverson has maintained that his ‘Wreak Havoc’ comments were a joking idea in response to Souls to Polls offering rides to all voters regardless of political affiliation,” he said. “The text messages demonstrate that the only person who expressed a desire to sabotage Souls to the Polls by jamming their phone lines is the disgraced white supremacist Carlton Huffman.”

Huffman has since been fired from a job in the North Carolina state government after making white supremacist media appearances. He’s also been accused of sexual assault. He previously worked for the Republican Party of Wisconsin.

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